The rival deals exposed a rift at the heart of professional club rugby in Europe. The row centres on which body – European Rugby Club (ERC), which organises the Heineken Cup, or Premiership Rugby, the organisation representing top flight English clubs – has the mandate to sell live TV UK rights for European competition games.

Both Premiership Rugby and the ERC have claimed ownership of the rights in the row, which has cast into doubt the future of the Heineken Cup, the world's leading rugby club tournament.

After the BT deal was announced, ERC issued a statement questioning the Premiership Rugby deal. "While awaiting further information regarding Premiership Rugby's proposed agreement with BT, the ERC board, which met in Dublin today, believes that any such agreement would be in breach both of [International Rugby Board] regulations and of a mandate from the ERC board itself," the body said.

"European club rugby's six participant unions have granted the authority to sell broadcast rights to its tournaments solely to ERC. It was unanimously agreed at an ERC board meeting on 6 June, 2012 that ERC would conclude a new four-year agreement with Sky Sports for the UK and Ireland exclusive live broadcast rights to the Heineken Cup and the Amlin Challenge Cup until 2018. Premiership Rugby was party to that decision."

The rift deepened later on Wednesday when Premiership Rugby moved to deny the claim by the ERC that BT's deal was in breach of International Rugby Board regulations.

"The deal which Premiership Rugby has completed with BT is financially strong for Premiership Rugby clubs and future European competitions, bringing up to £152m into the game, over the next four years," said a statement from Premiership Rugby.

BSkyB's deal is for the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup from 2014 – but rivals quickly pointed to doubts about whether the Heineken Cup will even exist by the time this deal comes around. BT's agreement gives it the rights to any European tournament formed by breakaway clubs.

The deal was seen as a huge statement of intent by BT, which has moved robustly to add to its growing portfolio of live TV sport by outbidding both BSkyB and ESPN.

BT's £38m-a-year deal is more than double the £18m-a-year contract thrashed out by BSkyB and ESPN previously. It is understood that BSkyB decided not to table a rival bid for the current rights package when BT's ambitious £152m move came to light.

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